Enjoyed the view into the mind of a gay man, but a lot of this book was just strange writing. Not content-wise, but the actual writing and order itself - it's like this book didn't go through an editor before it came out. Which is sad, because it had potential

This was a quick read and a very honest and moving story from Will. Some parts were quite sad as he talks about gay shame and how it's affected his whole life. As a straight person, I felt I gained a lot of insight from reading this. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

Honestly told memoir, frank and practical . Helpful to those with difficult choices ahead. Shows vulnerability and courage in equal measure with advice on overcoming issues concerning LGBTQ+.

I grew up listening to will young as he was my mums favourite singer. We went to many of his concerts together so he will always be someone I am fond of. This was such an enlightening read about his experience growing up gay, with people making casual homophobic comments thinking this is okay. This is a very thought provoking read that everyone should get to at some point.

Very interesting and heartfelt book about his life as a gay man. I enjoyed this book but I was sad to read about the struggles he went through. I don't think anyone should be ashamed of being gay or hide it in any way. This book is an eye opener and should be read by all to get an understanding of what it is like and increase awareness.

I've always thought Will Young seemed like a decent man and this definitely comes across in his writing. I think what he's written about shame, and gay shame, will potentially have a huge impact on readers. He's been very generous in his honesty.

If I was to be critical, I think the writing could be sharpened up in places. There were some sections where it seemed to need another edit.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Will Young seems like a really lovely and interesting person so I was really pleased to see he had written a book. This is such an honest and open account of his life as a gay man. He takes us through his life, from being a young boy, then heading off to university and going on Pop Idol. With the insights into mental health and his experiences in therapy, this almost felt like two separate books. Considering this book is so short, I would have loved a 2-parter - one that goes more in-depth about his life and experiences, and a separate book about how he has managed his mental health.

I found this candid and confessional. I'm surprised it hasn't had more coverage as it is brave and well-written.

I always wonder with celebrities who write books how much of what they say is the truth and what is made up and - more importantly - what it kept back. For the first time they are in control of the narrative of their own story rather than being at the hands of headline grabbing journalists with questionable morals. With Will Young's To Be A Gay Man I really feel that he has bled his life on to the pages of his book.

To Be A Gay Man shows Will Young at his most vulnerable. He talks about his sexuality, how the shame of this affected his mental health and his descent into needing to seek medical care because he lost control. The terrible thing about all of this is that they things that caused his distress are not things to be ashamed of and speaks volumes about how the society we live in still treats 'the other' with disdain that when you identify with this mythical 'other' you develop internal hatred. It really is heartbreaking.

Will Young should be congratulated on his candour in To Be A Gay Man. This is the kind of book that will help others.

To Be A Gay Man by Will Young is available now.

For more information regarding Will Young (@willyoung) please visit his Twitter page.

For more information regarding Random House (@randomhouse) please visit www.randomhousebooks.com.

I love Will Young. There is something about him that just resonates with me, his voice, his style, his humour, I just get him. In my strange imaginings as a middle aged woman, I could see me and him being best pals sinking a few bottles of wine.. I rooted for him during Pop Idol, in fact I spent quite a few quid voting for him on final night. His voice is amazing and I could listen to him sing the phone book!
After all that gushing praise, my book review! I really did enjoy this book it was fantastic to get an inside look at his private life. I was absolutely heartbroken to learn of how unhappy he was growing up and how difficult it was for him to accept himself as a gay man. I hope that he now realises just how fantastic he is! So hard to read about the ingrained homophobia he had to endure, I have to admit I just don't get it, why on earth would anyone feel threatened by someone else's sexuality?
Anyway Will is just an absolute gem, I think he is wonderful and my only criticism is that the book wasn't long enough. I wanted to read more about his life.

Non-fiction isn't my typical Go-To genre. I dip my toe in every now and again (I adored "The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper" & really enjoyed "Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen", and I am looking into a few other non-fictions such as "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer", "How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality" and "Strange Antics: A History of Seduction" to name but a few), but when I saw this up on NetGalley and then on my library's audiobook app, I jumped at it for a reason I couldn't put my finger on.

Part memoir (of a sort) and part non-fiction, Will talks about society's legacy of gay shame and how members of the LGBTQ+ community and how this climate effects young gay people growing up with a higher risk of developing low self-worth and self-disgust, leading to destructive behaviours in adult life. He, also, talks about his battle with his self-worth and gay shame, revealing the impact it had on his own life (depression, anxiety, addictions to alcohol, porn, shopping and love [yes, there is a love addiction. Something I didn't know about till I got to that chapter)

This is surprisingly short - 4 hours on audiobook and 272 pages in UK hardback - so I wasn't expect a deep-dive into the issue of gay shame, but I found that Will talking about it and how it effect him really insightful. From how UK government tackled the AIDS crisis in the 80s (many of us watched Channel 4's It's A Sin and were shocked over what we witnessed) to the casual homophobia we see in newspaper/media outlets via the use of coded language (yes, [CENSORED UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS WHO HAVE USED CODED LANGUAGE TO HIDE RACISM, SEXISM, HOMOPHOBIA, ETC], we see what you're doing), we see how this affected him (and others) as a young child figuring out who he is and how it affect his adult life, overcoming the external and internal gay shame.

Actually, Will mentioned one or two things that I, as someone who identifies a gay man, went "OH! I do this" or "I think of this!" and it made me pause and look at why.

I know this isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea but I think this will be an insightful and thoughtful book to use as a starting point to understand homophobia.

I’ve got to admit, it really wasn’t what I expected at all.

I had made the assumption that this book was essentially Will Young’s autobiography and I have always liked him and enjoyed most of his music so I was genuinely interested. On one hand it was an autobiography, but focused very much on his experience of being gay.

Again, I’m actually really eager to learn about experiences of minorities; hence some of the non-fiction books I’ve read like I Am Malala and In Order To Live, and the queer fiction books too; Red White and Royal Blue and Kate In Waiting. However, this book just didn’t resonate with me very well.

Don’t get me wrong, I did learn quite a lot about Gay shame and dealing with mental health issues as a whole. However, I felt the book was largely unstructured moving from topic to topic without much purpose, and at times it felt more like a rambling than a published piece of work. There were some very poignant points around media portrayal and abuse of LGBT+ individuals which I thought were really important and I thought the comparison to those of ethnic minorities and describing how his sexuality could be hidden so he sympathised more with them was really interesting.

Maybe this book would be really helpful to young people struggling with their own journey of acceptance. Or with individuals who have gone through something similar being able to relate. And maybe it is just my absolute ignorance, but I felt that his experience was generalising the experience of many. Does that make sense?

Like I say, it’s not something I have or ever will experience personally. It was an interesting insight, with some very well validated points which made me angry on behalf of all minorities. But ultimately I just don’t think I was the right audience for this story.

My thanks to #NetGalley and #Edburypublishing for allowing me to read this proof.
What can I say, an amusing and poignant read. I’ll never know the dilemma and angst that being out of step with what society regards as the norm means. However this well written memoir gave me insight.
A mixture of humour, anger and heartache it was an exceptional good read and I would thoroughly recommend this, especially as it answers the questions that polite society doesn’t allow you to ask.

I honestly don’t understand the point of this book, it reveals nothing about Will other than his journey of acceptance of himself being a gay man. I’ve been a fan of Will Young since I was 14, he’s been out since 2002 so it’s a strange decision to document a personal journey now. Perhaps it will help someone else going through their own acceptance but for me is was dull.

Will Young is a pop star, who first became famous as the victor of the popular ITV talent show, Pop Idol in 2002. Now in his early forties, this short memoir traces the course of his life so far as a gay man.
It is an interesting companion piece to Tom Allen's 2020 memoir, No Shame as well as to the recently Channel 4 drama, It's A Sin.
Being born gay is not easy for anyone and despite a relatively supportive and comfortable background, Young has had his struggles growing up in the 1980s and 1990s and again as a famous person in the 21st century where he has occasionally encountered public attacks from the likes of the Daily Mail, DJ Chris Moyles and Jeremy Clarkson amongst others.
But this is a very good book and very readable too. I was slightly less keen on the later stages of the book detailing his mental health struggles of the last decade. I don't doubt that these were very significant and difficult experiences for hìm at that time. However, in writing about them, he generally adopts a therapy-like way of writing which is less accessible than the rest of the book.
But overall, this is a very compelling and readable portrait of life as a gay man in the Britain of the year late 20th and early 21st century.

Will Young, singer, songwriter, actor and winner of Pop Idol, explores his feelings around gay shame. In this open and honest read Will shares how gay shame has both impacted and influenced his life. With traces of humour,
I found this an interesting and thoughtful read.

Will comes across as honest, witty and so very likeable! His balance of seriousness and humour is great.

The content of this book including the existence of gay shame is absolutely important for us to consider and understand in today’s society whether you are a part of the LGBTQI+ community or not. There is much to think about and learn from reading this book.